Nghe An Social Protection Center: A second home for the less fortunate
(Baonghean.vn) - "Listen to the subject with your heart, help the subject with action" is the operational goal that the Provincial Social Protection Center has set out. From here, many lonely, homeless people, many people with difficult illnesses have a second place, "home" to receive treatment, care and support.
Safe base
For nearly 10 years now, the Nghe An Province Social Protection Center located in Giang Son Dong Commune, Do Luong District has become the home of Mr. Nguyen Quang T, (from Kim Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District).
The man born in 1987 is now one of the active participants in cultural, artistic and sports activities for the brothers and sisters being treated at the center. He also shared that he wants to stay with the unit for a long time because here he feels he is a useful person.
Previously, Mr. Nguyen Quang T. used to work as a leather shoe worker in Bien Hoa city. The incident happened when he was nearly 30 years old when he suddenly had a traffic accident.
After the accident, his health recovery was difficult, especially due to prolonged insomnia and worsening illness that affected his consciousness and actions. When his family first brought him to the treatment center, he escaped many times, and his unit brothers had to go all the way to his hometown to look for him.
Having been at the Northern facility of the Social Protection Center located in Block 5, Dien Chau Town, Dien Chau District for more than 5 years, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tan (Trung Son Commune, Do Luong District) said that this is the time when she feels most comfortable and "happy" because "food is provided", "sickness is treated", the accommodation is spacious, each person has a room, and the Center's staff takes care of them.
At over 80 years old, she is still clear-headed, agile, and loves to work. Every day, in addition to reading books, newspapers, and playing cards with other men and women in the center, she also helps the staff with gardening and taking care of trees...
Having had a hard life, losing her husband and children early, and never having a home of her own, she said she was lucky to be able to come to the center and receive such good care. She also considered this place her home and the staff at the center her children and grandchildren.
The provincial Social Protection Center is currently located at 3 locations, currently 2 locations are operating stably (Do Luong and Dien Chau facilities) with nearly 200 subjects being treated and cared for long term. Of these, the majority are elderly people who are lonely, homeless, sick, have no relatives or people with mental disorders, and are unable to perceive.
At the Center, there are also 7 cases of relatives of martyrs. These are all cases of disabled people, homeless, and old. Many people are in poor health, unable to take care of themselves, so they have been here for many years.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Duc (Van Son commune, Do Luong district) is the daughter of a martyr and was born blind. She has two siblings, but due to difficult circumstances and inadequate care, she entered the center in 1989, when she was only 22 years old. Now over 50, she has become accustomed to the lifestyle and activities and feels happy and comfortable when living with people in the same situation.
With a large number of people needing care, while the entire staff and medical team of the center only has 34 positions, the workload at the center is very stressful.
A working day for the Center’s staff starts early in the morning and can end late at night. Sometimes, working hours cannot be calculated according to office hours, especially when someone is sick or has to go to the hospital.
Our medical department has 15 people and has to treat nearly 200 patients regularly. In addition to visiting, examining, dispensing medicine, and guiding patients on rehabilitation, we also have to take care of patients directly. If a patient's condition worsens, we have to transfer them to another hospital.
Many jobs are hard and anonymous, if you don't consider the patient as family, it's difficult to complete the task well.
Improve service quality
Nghe An Social Protection Centeris a public service unit under the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs with the main function of receiving, managing, caring for and nurturing social protection beneficiaries in especially difficult circumstances, unable to support themselves and unable to live in their families or communities. In addition, the Center also receives and nurtures beneficiaries in need of emergency protection; receives and nurtures beneficiaries who voluntarily contribute funds or have sponsors who contribute funds.
With its own characteristics, over the years, the activities of the Social Protection Center have always carried out two parallel tasks: care, nurturing and treatment.
In particular, with treatment, in addition to regularly visiting, examining, and rehabilitating at the center, the Center also annually coordinates with Nghe An Mental Hospital and other hospitals in the area to conduct screening, assess the level of disease, and have treatment and rehabilitation regimens for people with mental disabilities.
With the responsibility of a unit doing sponsorship work, besides taking care of daily meals and sleep, the Center also pays special attention to the spiritual life of the subjects.
Currently, the Center has a volleyball court, a volleyball court, a table tennis court, a reading room, and clubs such as table tennis, chess, badminton, culture, and arts clubs. Depending on their abilities and health, people can participate in activities to improve their health and intelligence, and to integrate and exchange.
Building a green, clean, beautiful landscape environment with many vegetable gardens and fruit trees also helps the center to be self-sufficient in most clean, safe food and create conditions for subjects to participate in production, labor, improve health and gradually live like normal people.
With the aim of improving the quality of social service provision for beneficiaries, in 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 1248/QD-UBND approving the Project to build a "Model of providing social work services" at Nghe An Social Protection Center.
The project development is of great significance to the Center at the present stage, when the needs of the subjects are increasing. Meanwhile, the policies, care conditions, treatment consultation and rehabilitation at the Center are still limited, only ensuring partial support for the minimum essential needs of a group of subjects.
In addition, the unit's facilities have degraded, medical instruments and equipment are not guaranteed, and some officers and employees have not received specialized training, so they cannot meet the requirements of caring for and assisting vulnerable people as desired by the center...
After more than 5 months of implementation, the project has been effectively implemented when many projects have been built, repaired and promptly completed and put into use, creating opportunities for patients to be cared for in increasingly better conditions.
In addition, many sports facilities have been completed, providing the subjects with a playground to improve and enhance their health. The center's latest report also shows that currently over 80% of the subjects are relatively stable in terms of psychology and mental health.
Although there are still many difficulties, we determine that social assistance must be diverse in both material and spiritual aspects, suitable for each subject.
Therefore, in the coming time, the center will continue to focus on improving the quality of care and nurturing, ensuring timely policies and supporting subjects to integrate into the community. At the same time, it will continue to promote socialization to increase resources to serve subjects, improve the quality of social work services to meet the needs of providing social work services of the people towards the goal of developing a fair and effective society.
